Now that we've got the right name of the killer in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre yesterday, the media profiles are starting to emerge. To the Drudge Report, playing video games is a remarkable enough thing that it bears mentioning in a headline. An italicized headline. Oh, it's factual enough, but that typeface and those ellipses raise a suspicious eyebrow, or at least mutter a "Just sayin'." Good work, Matt.

Having worked a cops reporting beat at a large newspaper utterly obsessed with tragedy, I can tell you what is going on: Reporters have been told to gather every single detail they can on Adam Lanza. They are. There is a bottomless desire to know as much as possible about the person who caused this tragedy. And it's absolutely fair game to mention Adam Lanza enjoyed computer games if it's part of who he was. If I was in my old job, I would have no trouble putting that into a story, as the Associated Press didin the 16th paragraph, well below statements from investigators about Lanza's potential mental illness, and in obvious context of what Lanza was otherwise like as a person.

It's lazy to list that detail in a headline stack along with the more likely causes of a mass killing, such as having a personality disorder, or being "obviously not well." I'm sure parents of autistic children enjoy seeing the suggestion Adam Lanza was autistic, too.

So, what does "played video games dot-dot-dot" really mean? Stories say Lanza belonged to a high school technology club The game they played was not specified.

violent gaming does seem to be a common thread in most recent mass shooting events... http://www.policymic.com/articles/20700/oregon-mall-shooting-and-video-games-clackamas-shooter-allegedly-trained-on-video-games

Conservatives may play video games, but know that you’re supporting a particularly despicable, pornographic quasi-Marxist culture/industry. It’s just another kind of Hollywood. Let them take the hits they deserve.

Only reason it’s a “common thread” is that like 90% of the people under 30 play them. Might as well blame the oxygen. The fact is nutters are nutters, scumbags are scumbags, and video games don’t make anybody either, and anybody saying otherwise is excuse mongering bad behavior with lies.

12
posted on 12/15/2012 2:15:55 PM PST
by discostu
(Not a part of anyone's well oiled machine.)

There's a number of people who have noticed a link between psychiatric or psychotropic drugs and numerous killings in the last thirty to forty years. I once lived with a woman who had mental problems and started taking psychiatric drugs under direction from some county counselor. She actually got worse the more drugs she took, and her behavior became more erratic and violent. Eventually I had to leave her after an incident with a butcher knife. That was enough for me. My own view was psychiatric medicine made her behavior worse than before she started taking them.

Since then I wondered how many people taking drugs for mental problems got worse. I'm sure there are people who claim that drugs have helped a lot of people with mental problems, but I wonder.

I think that it’s more of a ‘chicken or the egg’ thing. This is like blaming violence on drinking water. Everyone who’s ever committed murder has drank water.

We can blame the guns... every violent shooting has involved guns...

How about medications? Everyone who’s committed a murder spree has been on medications. (This one is probably closer to the truth.)

Almost everyone in the younger generation has played video games. Listens to similar music. Was raised on the same shows. It’s a generational thing.

The thing to remember is that violence has been with humanity for all time. I’ve been reading posts right here saying that we’ve NEVER slaughtered children before - as I’m watching a show about the Aztecs slaughtering thousands of men, women and children and committing cannibalism. They didn’t have video games. Nazis didn’t have video games.

We’re falling into the ‘blame’ trap. We’re trying to make sense of evil and we never will.

It’s only human nature, but it brings us to a bad place every time. (IE: the liberal’s ‘ban guns’ arguments)

19
posted on 12/15/2012 2:35:17 PM PST
by Marie
("The last time Democrats gloated this hard after a health care victory, they lost 60 House seats.")

The point is just that, but with guns. These loons play violent video games, watch violent movies and try to emulate the characters. Somehow in this screwed up world the gun gets blamed. Mather movies and video games escape that wrath though, as does the individual who is ultimately responsible.

26
posted on 12/15/2012 3:17:54 PM PST
by Chipper
(You can't kill an Obamazombie by destroying the brain...they didn't have one to begin with.)

“psychotropic drugs” given to them by psych’s. Only difference is in years gone by he would be infirmed now the psychs and the politicians decided they can function normally amongst us much like a convicted rapist or murder who are pardoned to do it again. Do they have our best interest in mind? I think not

As of November 11, 2011, the Call Of Duty series have sold over 100 million copies. As of March 31, 2012 there are 40 million monthly active players across all of the Call of Duty titles, with 10 million Call of Duty: Elite users and 2 million paying annual members. Over 1.6 billion hours of online gameplay have been logged Modern Warfare 3 since its 2011 release.

You would think that with this much "Violence Training" going on, these shootings would be happening every day or week.

cannot remember where i read the guy was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome and a personality disorder. Aspergers Syndrome is for a higher functioning individual with intelligence but no social skills. Autism higher spectrum - idiot savant - keep in mind Rain Man - Dustin Hoffman - great on facts but no able to function in society.

The gun was not the problem it was the issue of Asperger’s Syndrome - little is known about the disease recently added to the DSM classification - not enough people whom are trained to deal with the Aspergers Syndrome (Nonverbal Learning Disabilities) thus resulting in the youth being granted social security disability.

Note the classification of NonVerbal Learning Disabilities is a newer class of learning disabilities that the researchers are still trying to classify. Sue Thompson in Nonverbal Learning disabilities (NVLD clarifies the disorders of these type of learning disabilities). The problem is the children receive help to get through school, but as young adults they do not have any assistance because the colleges, technical schools do not have the resources to accommodate the disability. The diagnosis is made in elementary school and special education classes are part of the education - socialization skills but as yound adults isolated alone and some whom get jobs are fired repeatedly because of the social interactions needed in the workplace.

Please understand the diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome is a diagnosis that is under the DSM classification of mental health disorders. But it is not a true mental health disorder - it is a neuropsychological, neurobiological one. Some people call it a disorder of children whom only recognize traditional roles, the child as an adult is lost in the world, because the world has advanced but this child as an adult does not know how to function in the real world.

in counseling of people I have had two people in 12 years with the diagnosis of Aspergers Syndrome. I was not able to assist them, I referred them to the Henry Ford Healthcare System in Metropolitan detroit area for further assistance. In the school system Aspergers Syndrome is being diagnosed more frequently, but people do not understand it.

This is not saying for excuses, But generally the disorder is more aptly diagnosed and treated in a major metropolitan area. keep in mind the diagnosis has been made between the ages of 6 - 7, and is a lifetime disorder. Hope this helps in understanding the media will say mental health because of DSM classification. But the media will not read the DSM classification for Aspergers Syndrome. I can post it if others are interested or look it up in DSM Manual.

"There is a bottomless desire to know as much as possible about the person who caused this tragedy."

Reporters could care less about the truth regarding the perp or anything else- all they are concerned about is whatever might be used to blame guns and inflame the "ban all guns" mantra.

It might be interesting to know what meds this autistic kid was on. Many if not most prior similar school massacres have involved Ritalin or similar psycho drugs. One of the commonly prescribed drugs causes agression-"risperidone can reduce repetitive and self-injurious behaviors, aggressive outbursts and impulsivity, and improve stereotypical patterns of behavior and social relatedness.(from wikipedia)"

37
posted on 12/15/2012 3:56:20 PM PST
by matthew fuller
(Newt for the next Speaker of the House!)

I would not mind demonizing violent games. Not outlawing them, but making them taboo for children. Children spend all their awake time doing social media and video games and it stunts their social and cultural maturity.

In 2006, the FDA approved risperidone for the treatment of irritability in children and adolescents with autism.[6] The FDA's decision was based in part on a study of autistic people with severe and enduring problems of violent meltdowns, aggression, and self-injury; risperidone is not recommended for autistic people with mild aggression and explosive behavior without an enduring pattern.[7]

39
posted on 12/15/2012 4:18:01 PM PST
by matthew fuller
(Newt for the next Speaker of the House!)

Stupid liberal parents (cultureless) are not able to discern their children “playing video game” from “living video games.” You need to shout out to wake them up. Kids need social interaction with their parents so they don’t become empty vessels obsessed with computers. It’s new. It’s got to be addressed by conservatives. Kids need taming.

I have two older sons. All of them, all their friends, play video games. Most are religious or from religious families. I doubt any of them will ever shoot up schools. My sons spend a lot of time with their little siblings and adore them.

It isn’t the video games.

A lot of the military work with “real video games” -— missiles, drones. So is every retired soldier going to shoot up schools??

Articles with Aspergers Syndrome and autism in the first paragraph, were all over the afternoon/evening breaking news stories, yesterday. I knew what autism was; I had to research Aspergers Syndrome, since I’d only heard it once before.

There are also new studies that link early heavy marijuana use to schizophrenia. We have had several instances in our county of murder by a mentally ill person who had been an early marijuana user.

We had a sixteen year old who flipped out and strangled a 350 pound woman and after carrying her up a ladder to her loft. I think that he must have stabbed her first and then strangled her with the vacuum cord after he got her up into the loft. Somehow the kid developed super powers while in a psychotic state. He was just a skinny medium height 16 year old.

We had another guy whose mental illness was attributed to early drug use, who went on a rampage and murdered all his neighbors and then stole one of their trucks and drove to a gas station where he killed a police officer and shot someone else.

Then there was the local guy who went off his meds because people told him that medical marijuana would work just as well. He took his mother and sister hostage and then when the father came in and tried to free them, he shot and killed his own father.

and those are just the first three that I can think of.

Oh, I don’t know how I could leave this out. My son-in-laws brother is schizophrenic and the doctors also contribute that to early drug use (mostly marijuana) in high school and college. He hears voices and has tried to kill his mother several times.

There are also new studies that link early heavy marijuana use to schizophrenia. We have had several instances in our county of murder by a mentally ill person who had been an early marijuana user.

I won't call bull on those studies, but I myself was quite the marijuana user when I was a teenager, and I've never come close to killing anyone, nor have I ever felt a homicidal impulse in my life. I know lots of others who can claim the same.

Psychotropic drugs are an altogether different matter. There's a rapidly growing body of evidence that those kinds of drugs have a direct causal link to homicidal behavior. Here's just one such report:

I think in many cases you are correct.
I wonder how all these video games will effect my grandchildren.....they are all into society building and word games.
Are they going to become dictators demanding people spell everything.
As is in this case, in every tragedy, the loons come out blaming everything and anything - except the shooter.

49
posted on 12/15/2012 5:49:41 PM PST
by svcw
(Why is one cell on another planet considered life, and in the womb it is not.)

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